


An Ode To Danny Lawrence

by saintsavage



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 01:17:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4899970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsavage/pseuds/saintsavage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is horrible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Ode To Danny Lawrence

She wasn't afraid.

Not at seven, with skinned knees and a handmade bow in her hand, feeling more natural there than anything had a right to, pretending to hunt down the monsters, the bumps in the night. She was a flash of red, running wild in the park by her house, calling herself Artemis. Diana. There she wasn't too tall or clumsy, there she felt right. Felt home.

She wasn't afraid.

Thirteen and madly, madly in love with her best friend - a girl with a laughing mouth and a bird's nest of black hair. They were wild together, even if Danny's hands shook whenever Katie scrambled up trees or jumped into rivers with her eyes closed. She just wanted to keep her safe, to help. But Katie didn't want her help, insisted she could do it herself. She broke her arm that summer trying to scale a rock wall. Danny had yelled and Katie had cried. It ended with Danny's first kiss and Katie's family moving away to Chicago.

She wasn't afraid.

Those first few weeks on campus, homesick, feeling like she was lost and floating. The Summers had found her, not the other way around. They were impressed with her quarterstaff skills, with her confidence and bravery. Before long she was one of them and they were her home, her everything. And when someone took one of her sisters? Danny looked. Hunted. Found Laura instead.

She wasn't afraid.

Laura was holding her, so warm, so _alive_. Always so very alive. Indignant and loyal and so heartbreakingly _good_ , spilling over with it. She was luminous and vibrant and Danny fell hard. It was so easy to adore her. To be fondly exasperated while the small, impossibly delicate Laura defied the school, the Dean, _everything_ in her determination to right the wrongs. Her narrow shoulders could have carried a mountain and the force of her belief, her faith... it was a beacon burning a thousand miles high. Danny was hopeless against it, wanting that fire for herself even when Laura shut her out in the cold.

She wasn't afraid.

Not when she was slicing through juiced up zetas, cracking bones and tearing skin with all the force of her hurting heart. The weight of the world was at her back, pushing, pushing, pushing. Before her stood an army and behind that, just _maybe_ , was a flicker of salvation. The hope that she could save Laura. If nothing else, please, please let her do that.

She wasn't afraid.

She was _terrified_. Kirsch was gushing blood, babbling assurances that he was fine but he wasn't a warrior. He didn't know better. She brought him to Laura like an offering because by now going to Laura was the same as going home. And now she was going to die and all she could think is that this couldn't be it. Laura wasn't safe and she looked so scared.

She wasn't afraid.

Her skin felt so cold compared to the fire in her back. She couldn't move, her breath was raspy. Uneven. Blood on her hands, on Laura. _No, no, no._ _Laura_. She knew too much about war to lie to herself. There was blood, too much of it, dripping on the floor, crawling down her shirt with a life of it's own. And Laura, oh Laura. All she'd ever wanted to do was to protect her and now she looked so broken. Danny fought the pain. She wasn't afraid.

"And I'm not scared." _It was a prayer._

"Okay? You remember that." _Not for me, for you. Always for you._

"I'm not scared." _Mel will save the Summers, she has to._

"I'm not scared." _But who will save you?_

"I'm not." _It's all I ever wanted, you holding me. But it's wrong now._

That she was praying for a vampire she _hated_ to come and save the girl she _loved_ hurt more than the knife, but she had seen Carmilla face down hell, a supernova come to _rain hell_ upon _anyone_ who threatened Laura. Danny could believe in that. She wasn't afraid, really. Because Carmilla would come. Laura was going to be safe and it was time to let go. _I love you._


End file.
